US-South Korea drills focus on North Korea in Ukraine

South Korean and US forces will hold major joint drills from August 17 that account for North Korean troops' experience in the Russia-Ukraine war, an exercise spokesman said Monday.

The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise is a regular summer drill by South Korea's armed forces and their US allies. It is designed to prepare them to defend against nuclear-armed North Korea.

Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, said this year's exercise would reflect the changing “character of warfare”.

“DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine,” Donald told reporters, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. “They've taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea.”

Donald said that changed North Korea's capability and that the training would account for the threat. He said the exercise would have a heightened focus on drone warfare, GPS disruption and cyber attacks.

The drills will involve 18,000 South Korean troops and counterparts from the 28,500-strong US contingent in South Korea.

North Korea has long criticised the drills as rehearsals for invasion. Pyongyang has deepened ties with Russia since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and analysts say it has sent troops and munitions for Russia in exchange for financial support, food, energy and military technology.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that “a decision has been made for 30,000 to 50,000 North Koreans to be deployed on the territory of Russia”. He said North Korea was studying the war and could gain modern warfare experience that might affect the Pacific region.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has offered talks with Pyongyang without preconditions since taking office in June 2025, but North Korea has not responded. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.